Gauging the Worth of US Troops in Neocon Eyes
by Kim Petersen
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 18, 2005

In
the lead up to Christmas 2004, US Defense [sic] Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
courageously stood before some of the troops in Kuwait to field questions.
National Guard Spc. Thomas Wilson had the temerity to ask, “Why do we
soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and
compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?”

It was a
shame-evoking query for the war president’s defense chief. Rumsfeld
responded peevishly: “You go to war with the army you have. They’re
not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

There
was much negative fallout over the Rumsfeld’s lump-it declaration. But as
was
reported, inexplicably the number of armored Humvees increased shortly
thereafter.

Approximately one month later, the money is flowing in Washington DC. The
second inauguration party for President George W. Bush is set to be a
whopping shindig. Monetary contributions to the party are legally uncapped,
but officials of Bush have set a maximum of $250,000.

In a
move designed to stultify any quibbling among taxpayers, a startling display
of Bush family magnanimity unfolded. It was made known by the office of the
first lady that Laura Bush would personally pay for her outfits to inaugural
events.

The
inauguration shindig is speculated to cost $40 million even though a little
while ago there was no money to outfit Humvees with armor.

There
was
ostensibly not enough money either to rebuild a functioning Iraq.
Electricity, strained healthcare, and lengthy queues at gas stations in
oil-rich Iraq are the norm. The oddity is that what Saddam Hussein could rig
together for Iraq under UN sanctions following the slaughter in 1991 is not
manageable for the military hyperpower and its transnational behemoths
Halliburton and Bechtel.

In the
seat of empire, not everyone is well off. The
US Census reported that almost 36 million Americans were in the ranks of
the poor. One missed party could mean 36 million folks being a little less
poor. Or it could provide coverage for some of the 45 million Americans
without health insurance. Having $40 million poses the difficult choices of
what to do with it.

There
are some poopers out there. New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, wrote
the war president to suggest that since this is wartime, perhaps the
inaugural festivities should be toned down.

There
are other sundry costs to factor in. DC Mayor Anthony Williams estimated
that it will cost the district $17.3 million to help pay for security for
the inauguration. There is the $2.8 million to spruce up the ceremonial
grounds at the West Front of the Capitol. Then there is holiday pay for
federal workers, street closures, beefed-up security, which put taxpayers,
as assessed by the Office of Personnel Management,
on the hook for another $66 million.

New
boundaries for moral reprehensibility were set when the war-president Bush,
who sits safely ensconced thousands of kilometers away, goaded on the Iraqi
resistance while leaving US troops to scrounge through garbage heaps to
armor their vehicles because of a supposed lack of funds. But Bush’s war
administration can lavish tens-of-millions upon itself in an opulent
outburst of vainglory. The incongruity of the spending priorities is
blatant. The compelling conclusion is that merrymaking among elites
supersedes the dehumanizing poverty of Americans and others, and it
supersedes the strata of American society that ignorantly fills the military
ranks so that the elites can party.

Kim Petersen
is a writer living in Nova Scotia, Canada. He can be reached at:
kimpete@start.no.